Dear Jason...(open letter to Emissary Jason Greenblatt)

Susie Dym

Dear Jason, more & more people are getting worried about President Trump’s Israel policy!

For example, AFSI (Americans for a Strong Israel) today expressed grave concerns about two new and senior Trump appointees. The first appointment that rattled AFSI was that of Michael Ratney, who oversaw American grants to OneVoice. OneVoice tried unsuccessfully to interfere in Israel's most recent election by opposing Israel’s PM Netanyahu. When called out about it, it turned out that Ratney had deleted the relevant emails.

Ratney is to head the at State Department’s Israeli-Palestinian portfolio, which is a setback for Israel. After all, Ratney was a close confidante of John Kerry who Israel fervently hoped and assumed was politically defunct. Kerry, according to the normally diplomatic Netanyahu, “deal[t] obsessively with the settlements...If he put the same emphasis on Palestinian incitement and terror that he did on settlements maybe we will be on the way to peace.” Kerry’s harsh final speech against Israel was what prompted Trump’s famous “Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!” tweet. Yet Trump is giving Kerry’s confidante far more power over Israel than Obama did!

The second appointment is Obama “graduate” Anne Patterson. Anne -- nicknamed “the Muslim Brotherhood's Stooge" - has been selected for undersecretary of defense for policy.

AFSI said bluntly that these appointments “cause us to question President Trump's intentions vis a vis Israel”.

Then, readers were shocked to encounter a fresh Times of Israel report: Trump opposes construction within the ordinary municipal limits of Israeli settlements. More than five hours of talks failed to smooth over Trump’s public demand that Israel rein in settlement building, the Times said, adding that “very wide gaps” remain between Trump and Israel.

The Times quoted an Israeli minister, Yuval Steinitz: 'I always said there was no place for celebrations and festivities,” Steinitz said, calling celebrations of Trump’s ascent to power, “premature and inefficient”.

Caroline Glick also frankly voiced some criticism yesterday. “Trump is losing his focus. If he doesn’t get it back soon, he will fail”, she warned. Caroline said that “after holding out for a month”, Trump has adopted Obama’s “obsession” with empowering the PLO which is “a strategic error....None of [America’s] pressing concerns will be advanced by... a renewed obsession with empowering the PLO and its mafia-terrorist bosses”. Caroline criticized Trump for officially inviting “unelected dictator” Mahmoud Abbas to Washington, and for supporting expanded PLO control over Judea-Samaria and parts of Jerusalem – “at Israel’s expense”. Trump has also “ordered Prime Minister Netanyahu to deny Jews the right to their property and their legal right to use state lands”, according to Caroline.

The Trump administration also “moved $250 million in US taxpayer dollars to Abbas’s police state where ... Abbas and his cronies have enriched themselves while feeding a steady diet of anti-semitic, anti-American jihadist bile to their impoverished subjects”, Caroline charged.

Caroline sadly conjectured that “rather than repair the massive damage done to the US and the Middle East by his two predecessors”, Trump seems poised to “repeat their mistakes” in which case, “like them, he will leave office in a blaze of failure”.

Caroline says that you, Jason, intend to personally “continue on to Ramallah to embrace Abbas”. On a personal note, if there is something far more offensive and humiliating than previous United States President Obama’s having debased himself regularly in front of Abbas, it is if a proud modern Mordechai called Jason-Dov Greenblatt does the same. Painful and horrible. Risky and gives the wrong message.

Meantime, the Arab press as highlighted by the Daily Alert distributed by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish organizations, reported that the Palestinian Authority has – of course - joyfully and immediately cottoned on to the new situation. The Palestinians – true to their usual form - graciously said they might deign to negotiate with Israel – but that of course would be only in return for advance concessions – such as releasing terrorists, no building, guaranteeing a new terrorist state just a bikeride away from Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Ben-Gurion airport, and more. Back to normal!

A Jerusalemite, Walter Bingham, sat down and penned a letter to Mr. Jason Greenblatt yesterday. “Why is President Trump walking back on his election statements and promises concerning Israel?” Walter asked in frustration. Indeed, the Democratic (Obama/Hillary) message has always been “no” to Jewish homes in Judea-Samaria. But you yourself, Jason, explained during the presidential campaign that “It was certainly not Mr. Trump’s view that settlement activities should be condemned” -- because Jewish resettlement “is not an obstacle for peace”. This is why we are so worried to hear the new Administration suddenly asking Israel to “hold back on settlements" and explaining that “every time you take land for settlements, there is less land left”. Less land left for what? For a new Palestinian state just a bike-ride away from tiny Israel’s population centers? Why this reversal, why let down your own voters and supporters?

Jason -- people are getting extremely worried. Perhaps it’s time for the Trump Administration, having suddenly veered left, to make a sharp right turn back to the safe harbor of old-fashioned common sense and decency -- before it’s too late?

Sincerely yours and wishing success to you personally and to all the President’s men (and women), Susie